Business takes slack approach on mobile devices

South African organisations have been slow to respond to creating official policy surrounding access and management of mobile devices.

So says Garth Hayward, regional manager, Africa, at Kaseya, who adds that in some cases, the organisations are unsure on how to address or take advantage of the benefits that bring you own device polices offer them.

“Having an additional device type such as a mobile smart device to manage is causing problems specifically as most IT departments are already overburdened,” says Hayward.

To have a clear picture of how organisation are handling mobile devices, Kaseya and Mail & Guardian today launched the Managing Mobile Connections Survey which is set to run for two weeks.

“Our objectives are to gain a clear understanding of how and if companies have developed policies and procedures for managing mobile devices.”

Similar surveys in the past have revealed that local organisations are lacking control over data sitting on employees' devices.

Commenting on this, Hayward says information is huge differentiator for companies. “Not having lock down and ownership of this information is a threat that they need to address through a single strong management platform which is able to monitor and automate the management, security and business continuity of all access devices.”

He urges organisations to ensure that all devices are treated as equal citizens of the enterprise. “They should also have solid policies and procedures in place to ensure remote management and monitoring, security and business continuity.”

According to Hayward, the power of these devices today means that companies have to consider them to be a fully fledged citizen of the enterprise.

“The advantages are clear but so are the threats, access and control of access to information, security and business data backup and continuity are not luxuries; they are necessities to ensure that the sustainability of any company is increased and that threats are negated.”

He adds that there are two main trends he is witnessing in the industry - the advent of Internet-based private and public cloud hosted applications as well as mobile access to these applications and services.

“Clearly, given the huge geography of SA, increases in local cost of travel and the information access agility offered by these devices, organisations would gain advantage in both a cost-saving and competitive advantage by offering an 'access from anywhere at anytime' facility driven by sound management policies.”

Written by Admire Moyo, Portals Journalist, ITWeb